


Mean Girls Prompts

by Lost_at_Sea



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, d-slur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-08 19:50:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14701011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_at_Sea/pseuds/Lost_at_Sea
Summary: Short prompts from tumblr. (reach me at makesyoubrave.tumblr.com)





	1. When Janis sees Regina get hit by that bus

When Janis sees Regina get hit by that bus… it’s like her world stops and everything comes rushing back. She’s not one of those people who believes in like movie moments with flashbacks or montages when life-changing or life-threatening events happen but here she is fucking seeing a slideshow of those moments of her and Regina from age like 6 to 10 when things were perfect. Before Regina had walked in on her dad and his secretary. Before Mrs. George had spent a whole year in an alcoholic daze and Regina had practically raised herself. Before she didn't get picked up after school and had to walk home by herself or ask Ms. Sarkisian for a ride. Before she went home one day and found the house empty, and it stayed that way for two days. Before Regina became someone who wasn’t content with just Janis and the attention she got from her.

Her dad was still an asshole but her mom had fixed her life pretty admirably, if not completely. Her parents had damaged Regina at a young age but whenever young Janis had asked young Regina about it, she'd always brushed it off, said she was fine, said people had way worse problems than she did. She wore a mask back then just like she did now, but it wasn't as good a mask back then. When Regina met Gretchen (with Karen already attached at her side) she sensed the attention and practical servitude that Gretchen offered and when she looked around at her peers and realized she could get it from more than just Gretchen… well Regina was always observant and that lead well into her being manipulative and soon she was addicted to the attention and the people falling over themselves to either stay out of her way or win her praise. 

Janis would never excuse what Regina did, she could probably forgive it - probably; someday - but she couldn’t excuse it. Just because Regina’s parents sucked didn’t mean she got to make other people’s lives hell. But popularity and her queen bee status pretty much fell right into Regina’s lap. She was pretty, she was athletic, and she had a talent for finding people’s weaknesses. She’d been a quiet kid and she’d learned how to see people, not just look at them, and this translated itself well into manipulation and fear. Soon Regina got swept up into all the crazy antics of her new life, and then, when that new life was threatened, well she threw up ten feet walls, locked the doors, and sealed herself off. She threw any and every one to the sharks just to keep the shaky pedestal she was raised on intact. Janis couldn't tell you if Regina knew just how much she ruined peoples lives - she had to assume she at least knew how much she ruined Janis' - all she did know was that Regina didn't care anymore. And if she did care, she didn't care enough. 

But when Janis sees Regina get hit by that bus… she remembers eight-year-old Regina giggling in the summer around a campfire. She remembers ten-year-old Regina painting Janis’ nails and watching crappy tv. She remembers eleven-year-old Regina punching a boy who called Janis ugly on the bus. She remembers Regina holding her during thunderstorms or burying into Janis during scary movies, she remembers late night talks and plans for the future. Regina wanted to run a company, Janis wanted to paint. She remembers 12-year-old Regina giving Janis a really expensive set of paints, the last gift Janis ever got from the other girl. She remembers 13-year-old Regina’s eyes as the girls laughed at her and called her space dyke. There was something empty in them. Janis doesn’t think she’s seen them look not-empty since that day. Sure they sparkle and they glint and they glare, but it's like there's a filter over them, separating Regina from herself. 

When Janis sees Regina get hit by that bus she curses every time she ever threw an “I wish she would die” over her shoulder or spit it out under her breath. Janis knows that under the new Regina is the old Regina, and she knows it isn’t up to her to coax her out or to make her change or see the error of her ways. She just knows, when she sees Regina get hit by that bus, that she really hopes it isn’t too late for the old Regina, her Regina, to come back.


	2. "That's it... I'm killing her"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr prompt; "“For gods sake Regina- talk to her yourself” Cady being caught as the messenger between Regina and Janis" combined with this post; https://meangirls-musical.tumblr.com/post/174101776859/janis-smilesregina-slams-her-hands-on-table

When they come back for senior year, they all sit together. People are super freaked out. 

It’s understandable, though, their confusion and hesitation. From the first day of school on, Gretchen, Karen, Regina, and Cady sit with Janis and Damian and occasionally Aaron all at the same table. They’ve compromised and picked a new table, it’s not the plastics table (now being taken by the ever-expanding debate team), and it’s not the ‘art-freak table’. No, they’ve taken the seat where the seniors from the year before had sat and now it’s their table. Regina’s changed since the accident and coming out over the summer. And the seven of them get along really well now, despite the odds. Regina and Janis aren’t about to become BFFs, everyone thinks as they look around their table, but they’re content and kind. 

They don’t all always eat there. Regina’s almost always there, she doesn’t really have other friends - for a multitude of reasons - but - now that she’s out - she rolls her eyes and manages to sit at the GSA table once a month. You’d think it killed her. She’d usually spend the next week complaining about the ridiculous things they talked about, but everyone can tell she really doesn’t mind it because she always goes back. 

Damian sits with the leadership board sometimes, Cady with the mathletes. Karen’s taken up sitting with the knitting club, and no one understands that until she comes to school one day with a tiny knitted dog stuffed animal, and a multi-colored knitted vest. They all just shrug or roll their eyes or smile. Aaron sits with his soccer team, and Gretchen sits with the theatre kids - she’s kinda in their group now, using her planning for good as she helps them get their shows organized. And Janis, Janis sometimes leaves them to sit with the ‘art freaks’.

It’s Wednesday (they still wear pink on Wednesday’s but it’s more of a joke now than anything else) and Regina’s late to lunch because some freshmen didn’t know where the nurse’s office was and she “had” to “fucking walk them all the way across the school”. When she gets to the table she sees that neither Aaron or Janis are there. Cady and Damian share a look. They’ve noticed when Janis isn’t at lunch, Regina’s usually in a worse mood. 

Which is odd, Cady had thought originally, because it wasn’t like when Janis did join them for lunch that she and Regina talked very much or even at all usually. Occasionally one of them would laugh at the other’s comment, or they’d share a look across the table that would leave Regina smiling, but…

When Cady finally figured it out, about a month into school, she’d been a little shocked, and then she wasn’t shocked at all. She had called Damian, trying not to freak out, and asked him what he thinks. 

“Do you think there could be something going on there?”

“Oh, honey, Regina’s terrible at hiding her feelings; you know she always has been, but ever since the bus it’s like… there is her small, black heart, dangling on her sleeve like that Tiffany charm bracelet she wore until sophomore year…”

“...”

“Yes, Caddy, Regina’s in love with Janis and Janis, bless her soul, has no idea what she wants; but I know she wants that tall glass of water.”

“Yeah, Cady!” Karen’s voice had called from the background and Cady had no idea Karen and Damian were hanging out but that had been happening a lot lately, “it’s like, totally obvious. Heart eyes emoji, knife emoji, crystal ball emoji.”

Cady had just rolled her eyes, chuckled and asked Damian about their history homework. 

But now as Regina stalks up to their table and slams her tray down she makes eye contact with Damian over her poor excuse of a pizza. He rolls his eyes and pretends to flip his hair over his shoulder. No one pays attention to them. 

Cady is sitting across from Regina, and while she tries to talk to the girl about what they’re going to do that weekend, she can tell that the blonde isn’t paying attention to her at all. She turns around to see what Regina has been staring at (slightly to the left of Cady’s head) and spots Janis with her art friends. Janis has just come from art class and her hands and arms are covered with ink and there’s some smudged on her forehead. Regina’s been sitting there with an angry expression, but the softest gleam in her eyes and Cady is afraid that being friends with these people means one day she’s gonna roll her eyes so many times that they’ll just fall out of her head. 

Cady’s watching when one of Janis’ friends says something and Janis smiles; bright and big and charming. She’s startled back to her table when Regina slams her hands on the table. Cady whips around and sees Regina, color high in her cheeks, fuming. 

“That’s it! I’m killing her!”

“Or, you could man up and ask her out instead.” It slips out without Cady’s permission and she’s pretty sure that as soon as Regina knows that Cady knows that Regina likes Janis, that it’s over. That Regina’s going to explode. It’s a testament to how far Regina’s come that she stares at Cady for a while and then simply says:  
“... but killing her would be easier.”

•••

Eventually, they convince Regina that killing Janis would be detrimental, in the long run, to getting Janis to date her. And as soon as Gretchen and Cady put it in Regina’s head that there’s a possibility that Janis would date her (they give Karen a meaningful look when she opens her mouth and to her credit, she nods and then just says “Cats are like… totally humans stuck in furry bodies… right?” Cady sends her a thankful glance and Karen winks. 

The problem with this new situation is, Regina’s nervous around Janis now, and whenever she wants to invite Janis over for a girl’s night, or to a party, or to the mall, she gives Gretchen or Cady her biggest puppy dog eyes and asks them to ask Janis for them. But she stresses that they make sure they ask Janis while mentioning that it was Regina who asked for her. 

“Don’t just like, ask her to the party Cady, tell her ‘Regina wanted to know if you were coming with us to the party’ or ‘Regina wanted you to know there’s a party on Friday and she wants you to come’.”

Gretchen is still totally willing to do Regina’s bidding but in a less anxious way. Cady, not so much. 

It’s a Friday and Regina wants Cady to ask Janis to come over that night and hang out with Regina and Cady and Karen (Gretchen has rehearsal) when Cady spins on her at the lunch table. 

“For god's sake Regina- talk to her yourself!”

Regina deflates and Cady immediately sort-of regrets exploding at her. 

When Regina responds, she looks down at her lap and sounds like she’s choking up. It stuns Cady into stillness. 

“Cady, if I go up to Janis and ask her to come over she’ll probably think I’m going to like, murder her in the middle of the night or embarrass her in some heinous way.” She looks up at Cady, “She hasn’t forgiven me yet and I completely understand that. So when you ask her to come over she trusts you, and then she comes over and everything’s fine and she starts to trust me again.”

Cady smiles sadly. She knows that what Regina is saying isn’t completely untrue. But what Regina has missed is the shy way Janis looks at her when the blonde is turned away. Is the many rants in the middle of the night about “how can she be being nice to me, Caddy, no one can change like that.” And the weeks it took for Janis and Damian to believe that Regina really was trying. Regina was still kind-of bitchy, still judgemental (but working on it! She’d always hasten to add). Regina still owned her power and expected to get what she wanted; it was just now she went about getting those things in ways that didn’t actively ruin other people’s lives. 

In the last five months, Cady has seen that while Janis might not 100% trust Regina, and she’d never forget what she’d done, she’d forgiven her and was actively trying to make amends. 

“I’m tired of fighting, Caddy. I’m tired of fighting with Regina, and I’m tired of fighting wanting to be her friend and I’m tired of fighting how I feel about her.” Cady and Damian had hugged her and then the three of them had curled up and watched shitty romcoms. 

So on that Friday at the lunch table, Cady looks Regina in the eye and says; “I think you should ask her to hang out with us tonight.”

Regina pales, but nods. An hour later, she’s on top of the world again. 

•••

When Cady calls Karen (who then insists on facetiming her) two hours later and tells her to call Regina and tell her she can’t make it tonight, Karen looks at Cady like she has three heads. 

“Umm… Cady, I told Regina I couldn’t come over before I even left school. Duh? Her and Janis need to spend some time together or they’re gonna explode from all that unresolved tension.”

Cady is finally starting to understand that while Karen might be a little lacking in the smarts department, that she’s one of the most observant people Cady’s ever met. Cady promises to bring her ice cream and that the two of them can hang out that night instead. 

She calls Regina an hour before she’s supposed to be there because she thinks that it’ll be too short notice for Regina to freak out and call Janis to cancel. 

“If you’re fucking calling me to tell me that you’re not coming tonight I will flay you alive, Heron.”

Cady, who’s already at Karen’s, eating ice cream in the blonde girl’s bedroom, rolls her eyes. 

“Calm down Regina, this is perfect.”

“No, it’s fucking not!” Cady has to pull the phone away from her ear at the shrill screech that Regina emits. “In what world is the situation of me and Janis being alone for the first time in five years without either of us being prepared for that, a good idea?”

“Because!” Cady snaps, tired of the whole thing, ‘if it was up to you... you would have never hung out with her by herself and I’m tired of watching you pine over her. Woman the fuck up Regina, and don’t throw away your shot.”

 

Regina is silent on the other line for a while. Before she hangs up she whispers into the receiver “I really fucking hope you’re right.”

It kind-of breaks Cady’s heart.

•••

Cady calls Janis, feels like it isn’t fair to her friend to let her walk in blind. 

“So I can’t come tonight?”

“Hello to you to Caddy, what’s up?” Janis sounds far away and there’s some stumbling and crashing on the other line.

“Janis! Are you ok?”

 

“Yeah yeah I’m fine, I’m just running a little behind and I’m getting dressed for tonight, what’s up?”

“I can’t make it to Regina’s tonight.”

 

Janis is quiet. “Ohkaaaaaaay. That’s gonna be a little awkward but it’s fine. I’ve been meaning to ask Karen to help me out with a new color palette for my newest painting so-”

Karen jumps for the phone and starts to answer so Cady has to jump on top of her and throw one hand over the blonde girl’s mouth. 

“What was that, you ok Cady?”

 

“Yeah, I just tripped down the stairs. No biggie! Here’s the thing though, Karen can’t come over either she’s… she’s uh” She realizes she’d never asked Karen what she’d told Regina so she looks down at the girl. Karen mimes coughing and puking. “She’s super sick, she just can’t make it either.”

Cady can practically hear Janis’ eyes narrow through the phone. “Cady, what are you doing?”

“Nothing Janis, just promise me you’ll go and try to have a good time.”

“Cady, you know I don’t have a problem with Regina anymore - or as much as I possibly could.” Janis says through gritted teeth, “but you also know how I… well how I feel about her. You’re really abandoning me on this one?”

“Yep!” Cady says cheerfully, “and I’m sure you’ll thank me for it someday.”

•••

Janis calls Damian and is about 10 seconds from a freakout when he calmly and a little tiredly tells her that he’s fed up with her wishy-washy attitude and wants his best friend (who goes for what she wants) back. He tells her to suck it up and wear something cute. Janis looks in the mirror and changes for the third time that night. 

•••

She ends up getting to Regina’s like ten minutes early because 1. Janis hates being late and 2. Regina hates it when people are late. But then Janis is panicking. But when she looks at Regina’s house she sees movement at the window and realizes Regina must know she’s here. She looks at herself in the rearview one last time, and then takes a deep breath and gets out of her mom’s car. 

•••

At 11 am the next morning Cady gets a call from Janis. She’d fallen asleep at Karen’s and had dreamt of forest fires and tornados. She thinks maybe she really messed up. Maybe Regina and Janis weren’t ready for that, maybe it went really horribly. She fumbles with her phone in her rush to answer and breathes a sleepy “Hello?” into the receiver. 

Janis responds, her voice deep and throaty, she sounds like she’s lost her voice a little; she sounds like she just woke up. “Thanks, Caddy…”

She hears someone grumble sleepily in the background and suddenly Regina’s on the line. “Go to hell, Heron and let me go back to sleep.” 

There’s a muffin basket from Regina on her porch by the afternoon.


	3. Janis Stares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina thinks her luck ran out a long time ago...
> 
> Regina/Janis as college roommates from a tumblr prompt. I didn't think there was a world in which they were like "yo let's be roommates" but I also couldn't bring myself to write something where it happened by chance so suspend your disbelief just a touch for that part. 
> 
> How do they deal with sharing space, watching each other go through romantic relationships, and navigating what they want?

Regina George thinks that all her luck ran out a long time ago. 

To backtrack; her senior year of high school had been quite the experience. No longer the top of the social food chain, permanently damaged from the bus incident, and becoming a new person. Suddenly she limped instead of strutted, smiled instead of sneered, and honestly cared about her friends and their lives. Weird. 

She’d even become friends with Damian and more-than-civil with Janis. But when Janis comes running into school one day, waving a piece of paper above her head, and shouting that she got a full-ride to the Rhode Island School of Design, Regina pales. 

Everyone hugs her and congratulated her and Regina plasters on a smile and is genuine when she tells Janis she’s really proud of her and her face softens at Janis’ big grin. 

Then Karen pipes up “isn’t that where you’re going to school, Regina?”

Regina pinks. Regina had applied early action to RISD and got in, but she was waiting to see if she’d gotten into SCAD or one of the other schools she’d applied to. RISD was her first choice but if one of the other school’s was going to offer her a bigger scholarship… 

She’d decided about a week ago that she wanted RISD and she’d been talking the decision through with her parents. They’d agreed and she had told Karen (Michigan University) and Gretchen (Northwestern). She hadn’t wanted to tell Damian, Janis or Cady, because none of them had decided on a school or heard back from all their applications. But now it was out in the open. 

“Yeah, um it is.”

Janis stares at her. “You’re going to RISD?”

“Yeah.”

Janis grins. “Damn, this is going to be wild.”

•••

Damian (who’s going to NYU) is the one who convinces them to room together. They’re both slightly intoxicated; drinking wine and watching romcoms just the three of them (Gretchen and Karen are at some party that Regina had declined an invitation to (which had honestly shocked them all), Cady and Aaron on a date) and he convinces them that it’ll be better if the two of them room together than it would be to try and get along with strangers. Plus, he argues, they’re friends now. 

They sign up and apply and pick a room. When they wake up in the morning they regret it but it’s too late now so they’re stuck. 

•••

Move in day is a little rough. The Sarkisian’s and the George’s haven’t interacted in years, but their parents are polite to one another. Janis and Regina worked it out so Regina would set up her side of the room in the morning and Janis would do hers in the afternoon. 

When Janis and her parents arrive, Janis breathes out a sigh of relief. Regina’s side of the room is definitely pinker then Janis would ever allow her room to be, but it’s mostly white and gold with just a soft pink rug and dusty pink bedding. She’s put up fairy lights and some polaroids and she’s covered her desk surface in fake-marble adhesive panels. It’s very Regina. 

Janis’ side of the room is a lot less black then Regina would have expected. When all is said and done Janis has put up a big black and white tapestry with gold tassels around it on the wall and her bedding may be black but most of the rest of her stuff is either a light teal or white. All in all it kind of works. When Janis’ parents leave to go move the car, Regina taps Janis on the shoulder and hands her a pillow. It’s black and gold and it says “I’m cooler than you” on it. Janis stares at her. (She puts it in pride of place on her bed)

Their dorm is small, though, and they refuse to make their beds bunk beds. Regina lofts her bed and sticks her dresser, storage bins, and desk under it. Janis keeps her bed at hip height and puts her desk at the head of the bed and her dresser slides underneath. Regina brought the coffee maker (some fancy thing that makes lattes and cappuccinos) and a tv that they put against the windows. Janis brought the fridge, two beanbags, and a fan. 

By the end of the day, they’re all unpacked and ready for what orientation will bring. Janis calls Damian and Regina insists on talking to him; it warms Janis’ heart. By the end of the week, they’ve both made a few friends but they’re not afraid to admit they’re glad they came with someone they already knew. 

•••

That's not to say that they always get along. Sometimes things get a little heated. 

They fight. They scream. They don’t talk for days. And then, whoever was wrong (it’s usually Regina but not always) will buy the other dinner or cookies, or they’ll come home for class and the entire dorm will be completely cleaned.  

One time, after a particularly bad fight, Janis comes back from class and there’s chocolate mousse from that place they went to with Regina’s mom when she visited a month ago that made Janis blush when she had to choke back a moan. The chocolate mousse is ridiculously expensive and amazingly decadent and the restaurant isn’t very close so Janis’ is touched. Next to it is a sing rose. Janis double takes. It’s white and blue and black? which confuses Janis so she gets closer. She realizes it’s made of blown glass. 

Janis is touched and wonders what poor kid Regina had to pay off or intimidate into making it. 

It’s not until 11 pm when Regina is working at her desk and Janis is watching Netflix in bed when she remembers that Regina’s in a blown glass elective. The only light in the room is from Janis’ computer and Regina’s desk lamp. Janis stares at her. 

Janis fakes having to pee and calls Damian. He rolls his eyes and tells Janis to calm down but as soon as he hangs up he squeals and freaks out to his roommate. 

•••

It’s the beginning of October and Janis comes home from class, completely covered in paint and Regina’s trashed the room. She’s apparently getting ready for some party. It’s a Friday night and even after all these years when Janis opens the door and sees Regina in her skin-tight jeans and a low-cut crop top with a pink jacket she has to blink a bunch of times as her brain sort-of short-circuits. 

As soon as Regina sees Janis just staring and standing in the door she rolls her eyes. 

"I'll pick it all up as soon as I finish getting ready.”

Janis doesn’t necessarily believe her but she just shrugs and leaps onto her bed. She can wait to get settled in for the night until Regina leaves for her party. 

She’s sprawled out on her bed when she realizes Regina’s been staring at her. She pops one eye open and looks up to see Regina with a glint in her eye. Reflexively she bolts up. 

“I don’t know what you’re about to say, but the answer is already no!.”

“Janis…”

“No! No! NO!”

“Will you calm down?” Regina rolls her eyes and Janis stops (but only because she wants to).

“I just wanted to know if you wanted to come to this party tonight…”

Janis’ jaw drops. “Why would I want to come to one of your dumb parties?”

Regina looks taken aback. “Firstly, the parties I go to aren’t even the weird wild ones. Secondly, you sit in here every-fucking Friday, I think getting out would be good for you. Find somebody hot, drink a little, let your hair down.” Janis just rolls her eyes, but she’s also chewing on her bottom lip, which Regina knows means she’s thinking about it. “And lastly, I thought we were friends now?”

Janis starts and whips her head towards Regina. She looks her in the eye and see’s sincerity. It makes her feel kinda bad.

“I don’t really know what to wear.”

Regina’s grin is feral. 

•••

Janis shows up to the party in pretty much what she always wears but Regina’s “refined it” as she said. 

Instead of her big heavy jacket, she put Janis in one of her own lighter-weight and better-fitting black leather jackets. Janis is loathe to admit that she actually really likes it. Regina grins and tells her to keep it. Janis stares at her. (“You know I’ll probably just paint it and shit…” “If I wasn’t ok with that why would I have offered you keep it? I think your jackets are cool, they could just fit you better.”) Janis stares at her more. 

When Janis goes to do her makeup, Regina slaps the eyeliner out of her hand and sits Janis down at Regina’s desk. She spins the chair around so Janis is facing her and giggles softly (“I’ve always wanted to do your makeup”) Janis stares at her. 

When she spins Janis back around Janis is kinda pissed. Pissed because she doesn’t hate it. She’s wearing a lot less eyeliner than usual, but her eyeshadow is dark and blended really well and gives her that dramatic look without being as heavy. Regina grins and spins her back around, refusing to let Janis put on her regular lipstick and instead presents a purple-nude. Janis hates that she likes that too.

Regina insists on taking a picture of her (Janis flips off the camera) and sends it to the North Shore Squad group chat. 

Cady calls them because she’s laughing so hard; tell’s Janis she finally got made over by the plastics. Janis hangs up on her and Regina cackles. 

Gretchen sends a long paragraph gushing over how nice Janis’ bone-structure. She sends a picture of something for them to try next time and although Regina rolls her eyes Janis see’s the smile she’s trying to hide. 

Karen sends about a million emojis that mostly encompass the hearts and a bunch of thumbs up but she’s thrown some fried shrimp and some dogs in there for reasons no one can try to guess. 

Damian face-times them in the middle of a skin-care routine and gushes with Regina over how great Janis looks. Janis groans and stomps around in the background, but she pays very close attention to what they’re saying about her hair and the way the eyeshadow softens her “gorgeous” eyes. 

•••

Janis’ biggest fear is that when they get to the party Regina will just desert her, but she’s also resigned herself to that fact and decided she’s just gonna say fuck it. Maybe she’ll meet someone hot or someone interesting. Or both. 

She’s shocked when the door to the house party opens and Regina grabs her hand and leads her through the crowd. Janis is pissed to say almost everyone at this party is hot. Some in the Regina-duh way and others in their own “I’m confident in the way I am but also have really pretty eyes” kinda way. 

Regina drags her to the kitchen. 

“You don’t like, have to drink or anything, and they don’t usually let like the gross pervs in, but don’t like…” she looks at Janis seriously, “don’t lose track of your drink. And if you do, get a fucking new one.”

Janis hasn’t been to a lot of big parties like this but she’s not a stranger to alcohol. She’s expecting Regina to give her something sweet and fruity and gross but when she asks for a drink and Regina hands her a solo cup, it’s an old-fashioned and Janis grins. Regina winks, grabs her hand again, and pulls her back into the other room. 

They stand around and lots of people come up to Regina. Some of them Regina greets warmly and introduces to Janis. Others elicit a brush off. This one dude, Mark, comes up and Regina makes eye contact with Janis and rolls her eyes and sighs before greeting him. Regina isn’t as much of a bitch as she used to be, but she barely speaks to Mark, keeping her attention on Janis and he gets the hint. 

“He was the nude model for one of our figure drawing lessons and he thinks he’s the fucking shit.” She sips her drink, “he’s really not.”

Janis snorts. 

When their drinks are empty Regina grabs her hand, leads her back into the kitchen where she gets rid of their cups and offers Janis a shot. Janis grins and they down some vodka before the song changes and Regina kind-of-squeals. She grabs Janis by the hand and runs to the dance-floor. 

Before Janis can finish thinking that this whole Regina-holding-her-hand thing is like a lot, Regina’s all up in her space dancing. Janis doesn’t really care what people think of her, hasn’t for years, but that doesn’t mean she’s completely comfortable in this situation. Regina ducks her head to make eye-contact with Janis and her eyes and her smile are warm when she leans in. Janis just stares. Regina’s mouth is incredibly close to Janis’ ear when she chuckles “Don’t worry, just don’t think about it.”

Janis is a weirdo. She knows that she owns it. But when she starts dancing in her own way she expects Regina to roll her eyes and tell her to stop or to try something different. But Regina just throws her head back laughing and dances with her. It’s kind-of intoxicating. 

They’re like three songs in when a big buff dude comes up behind Regina and starts dancing against her. She stiffens, turns around, and sets him with a glare that could crumble someone much bigger and stronger than him. So he puts his hands up and backs off. 

They go through about five more guys until it seems that everyone understands she’s not interested. But then out of the corner of Janis’ eye, she see’s a tall, thin, muscular brunette in a button up, shiny silver shoes and a leather jacket start making her way through the crowd. Janis tries to give her warning eyes, not wanting this girl to face the humiliation of Regina, but when she starts dancing with Regina the blonde stiffens as she has with all the guys, looks over her shoulder and then she grins. She swivels her head back to Janis and makes direct eye contact as she leans back into the girl. Janis just stares. 

•••

Janis needs a break and she starts to head off the dance floor. Regina looks a little put-out but goes to follow her. Janis turns around and smiles honestly “No worries, I’m just gonna get some water and take a break, I’ll be right over there.” Regina grins at her and grabs her hand and leans in so Janis can hear her. “Call me if you need anything.”

Janis thinks that’s sweet and smiles but answers back, “I’m ok Regina, enjoy your night.”

•••

Janis ends up hitting it off with this girl named Felicity who’s an animation major and tall, lithe, and has short, strawberry-blonde hair. When Felicity leaves at 2 am she slips Janis her number. 

Janis turns around and scopes out the crowd for Regina. She finds her in a very dark corner, being pushed into the wall by the girl she was dancing with before. The girl must be going at Regina’s neck with some fervor because Regina’s eyes are glassed over when she makes eye contact with Janis across the room. Janis gestures to her phone and then waves a goodnight. 

Regina pulls away from the girl, Jessie, and pulls out her phone. 

*Janis 2:13AM: Mica from my intro class is gonna walk home with me.  
*Janis 2:13AM: Stay safe and don’t walk home alone.  
*Janis 2:14AM: Also, if you bring her back to our place I will literally murder you.   
*Janis 2:14AM: *kissy face emoji*

Regina laughs really hard. 

•••

They don’t talk about it, Janis figures that they’re past it all enough to not have to make a big deal out of Regina apparently being into girls, but the more she gets to now Jessie, the more it bugs her. She calls Damian to tell him and it takes him approximately twenty minutes to calm down. 

“I STAN ONE QUEEN” he shouts into the phone before he hangs up. Janis is glad that Regina and Damian are friends but she feels a little betrayed. He calls her the next evening and apologizes and helps her work her lasting feelings about it all. 

•••

Jessie and Regina are fuck-buddies and they don’t last for long. But once Jessie happens it’s like Regina’s settled into it and suddenly there’s a parade of people. 

Regina’s usually really good about not bringing them back to their dorm but sometimes Janis comes home from the studio really late and finds a silk scarf on their door (Regina refuses to use socks) and she has to crash with one of her other friends. It doesn’t happen often enough for Janis to truly have any grounds to complain, but over time she gets home and see’s that goddamn red scarf on her door her blood boils. 

One time, Regina forgets the scarf. Or maybe it’s that her and her newest conquest just got home, because Janis opens the door and Regina’s pushed up against the supports of her bed, pressed incredibly close to a girl that Janis recognizes from one of her classes - Frankie, Janis thinks - and Frankie’s hands are in Regina’s back pockets, and Regina’s moaning and her top is on the ground and she’s wearing a white floral bra and Janis stares, mouth open for a few seconds before she slams the door and bolts. 

She comes home the next evening and Regina’s not there, but the room is clean and Janis’ usual order from their favorite Chinese place is on her bed, still warm. 

•••

Regina might have a lot of girls but that isn’t to say Janis is living like an old maid. By the time their first year is over and it’s time for them to go home for summer break, Janis has been on plenty of dates, dated a girl named Quinn for most of second semester and even dated that dude from her intro class for about a month before she realized he was seeing a girl from his portraiture class at the same time. 

When she tells Regina why they broke up, Regina stands up from her desk, looks Janis dead in the eye and Janis stares as Regina slowly transform into Junior-Year-Regina. Her jaw sets, her mouth purses, her eyes go hard, her posture becomes impossibly straighter and she sucks on her front teeth and puts her hands on her hips. 

It makes Janis feel a lot of things. 

Janis slides off her bed and panicked-ly waves in Regina’s face. 

“Hey, hey, no-no-no. We’re not going back there ok!?”

Regina’s face softens at Janis’ panicked look and she takes a step forward and pats Janis on the cheek. 

“I”ll be back in an hour, call Damian and clear some space on your bed.” Janis looks skeptical. “What kinda ice-cream do you want?” Janis stares and then grins. 

Regina struts out of the room. 

•••

She comes back a little over an hour later and she looks smug. She toes off her shoes and grabs the pint of ice cream out of the bag she’s carrying. She grabs two spoons and climbs into Janis’ bed. Janis shoots her a questioning look. 

“Stop worrying and eat your ice cream.”

Janis decides to listen. 

•••

She sees Mica the next day and he looks sheepish and small in a way he never has before. He apologizes honestly and profusely but Janis just smirks and walks away. Let him stew for a little, she thinks. 

A week later she asks Regina what she did and Regina says all she did was tell the girl from the portraiture class what he did. Janis stares at her and Regina rolls her eyes. “I may have also got all up in his face and told him if he ever did it again that I’d castrate him.” Regina shrugs nonchalantly and Janis bursts into laughter. When she finally calms down, wiping her eyes she thinks that maybe she should talk to Regina about how that’s not a really cool thing to threaten someone, but then she thinks about how it might actually make Mica think about the consequences of his actions and she just smiles at a very smug Regina. 

•••

They go home for summer break and, unlike winter break when Regina flew directly to Florida, they drive together. Regina drives most of the way and Janis puts her feet on the dashboard and although it looks like it physically pains her, Regina says nothing. Janis buys them lunch and then offers to drive the second half. Regina sits primly in the passenger seat until Janis flicks her and tells her to stop being a brat. Maybe to prove a point or maybe for a different reason, Regina stares at Janis as she puts both her feet on the dash and reclines her seat back. 

Regina will never admit that Janis is the one who wins because she actually really enjoys relaxing. She likes to pretend it doesn’t exist, but the lasting pain from the bus really gets to her sometimes. So far she’s been able to hide it pretty well from Janis but she’s unsure how much longer that will last for. 

•••

They hang out over break, of course, the North Shore Squad does a lot together, catching up and hanging out. But every night Regina looks around her big room and feels scared and sad and alone. Janis does too. 

It’s the day after Fourth of July when all of Janis’ family had been in her house the night before and the house is so quiet and she cracks and she finds herself calling Regina. 

“Janis? Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, it’s just…” she chuckles awkwardly, “it’s really quiet here.”

Regina’s brain gives her a million ways to make fun of that but she’s too soft now, she thinks because she just says; “Yeah, same… I miss you.”

Janis is silent and Regina balks. “I mean I miss having someone in the room, I got so used to it and it’s like… wow now I’m all alone and it’s just really foreign, like-“

Janis interrupts her. “I miss you too, Regina.”

They fall asleep with the line still connected, though they don’t say anything else, just content to know that someone is kind-of there.

•••

When it comes time to pick where they’re living the next year Janis decides there’s no way in hell she’s living in a dorm again. She thinks it’s going to be really weird not living with Regina until Regina texts her and straight-up asks if she wants to live with her again. Janis probably wouldn’t admit it but she appreciate’s Regina’s straight-forwardness. Apparently, Regina’s found a little two bedroom town-house really close to campus. Janis grins and agrees. 

Their new house is gorgeous (at least in their eyes) and it’s really nice to have their own rooms, though they still spend plenty of time together. However, Regina’s escapades seem to have tripled. And having her own room means Regina brings more girls back to the house. They’re never really loud enough for Janis to hear them (what with the bathroom in-between their rooms) but when Janis comes home and see’s a foreign pair of shoes on the mat, she usually spends the night with one of her friends, a feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. 

Janis has made friends with the people from that first party and when they throw another one in November, Janis and Regina get ready for another one very similar to the first time, but it’s colder now and fall so Janis insists upon wearing flannel. Regina concedes that but has to wrestle a beanie from Janis’ hands. 

Regina ends up leaving at like 11 pm with some leggy brunette in a backward baseball cap and Janis is fuming. A fucking baseball cap? Janis finds the nearest eligible person (tries to not process that the girl is blonde and athletic and wearing pink shoes), pushes the girl against the wall and kisses the snot out of her. Ten minutes later, Janis leaves with her. She just walks the girl home and then she fumes some more. 

The fuming lasts for two days until she comes back from class early and notices Regina’s home. She’s supposed to be in class so Janis walks towards her room, sees the door open and then enters to see Regina lying in bed, crying. 

“Regina! What’s wrong?”

Regina seems to short-circuit. She’s silent for a little too long. “Nothing, nothing I’m fine.” She goes to sit up, and Janis thinks her face might crack with the severity with which it is scrunched up in pain. She manages to swing her legs over the edge of the bed, and sit up before she can’t make it any farther. 

Janis just stares at her.

Regina deflates. “I couldn’t get out of bed this morning. I tried and my legs buckled and it took me an hour to get myself back up into bed.”

Janis’ eyes are huge and she looks confused. Then her face softens. 

“It’s from the bus, isn’t it?”

Regina starts crying again. “It just happens sometimes, the residual effects of it and all that, sometimes my body just can’t keep going.”

Janis steps in-between Regina’s legs and hugs her. She pulls Regina farther off the bed a little so that she can properly hug her and tries not to think about it. She holds her really tight but tries not to put too much pressure into it at the same time. After a few seconds, Regina hugs her back and Janis holds her as Regina cries and cries. After a few minutes Regina seems to not be able to hold herself sitting anymore and Janis helps her lie back down, runs to her room and digs under her bed to get the heating pad she keeps there and plugs it in. She tucks it under Regina’s back and grabs a towel and wets it in the bathroom, coming back and wiping Regina’s face down, tear-stained and blotchy. 

She stares at Regina, with her eyes closed laying there in obviously a lot of pain and something inside Janis breaks. She climbs into bed with Regina and Regina curls into her and Janis holds her as she cries herself to sleep.

As soon as she thinks Regina is out enough, Janis slips out of her grasp, slips out into the hall and calls Damian. 

•••

Once she admits to Damian that she has feelings for Regina, everything gets harder. Once Regina recovers from her bout of pain she’s back on top of her game and Janis can’t stand watching her flirt with, hold hands with or make out with this slew of girls. More and more come back to the house.

Regina and her still hang-out a lot. They do their homework together. They sit in Janis’ bed and watch TV when they don’t feel like going out. Regina comes to Janis’ art presentations and Janis looks over Regina’s compositions. 

Two weeks before winter break Regina comes home and tells Janis that she’s absolutely in love with her sculpture class and she thinks she’s either going to get a dual-degree in that and fashion, or she’s going to completely change her major. Once they get back, and over the course of the first two months, Janis see’s Regina’s life change as she delves into her passion. She has much more enthusiasm for her school work and besides that, all the working with her hands is giving Regina’s already toned arms (that girl is up at 6 three days a week and in the gym) even more tone. 

The fourth time Janis finds herself staring at them she realizes something’s gotta give soon. 

•••

That day comes sooner than Janis thinks it’s going to. They’re at a party and Janis and Regina are on the dance-floor. Janis is just the far side of buzzed but Regina hasn’t really been drinking. With every party, Janis gets more and more comfortable with the scene and the bass is pounding at this party. Regina grabs Janis’ hands, nothing out of the ordinary, but then suddenly Regina’s spinning around and placing Janis’ hands on her hips. She backs up into Janis and flips her hair all to one side, smirking back at Janis. Janis just stares at her but then she smirks too and pulls Regina closer. 

A song and a half later and Janis realizes what’s happening and kind-of bolts. She uses the excuse that she needs to use the bathroom and splashes cold water on her face. It sobers her and makes her realize she’s ready to go for what she wants. She heads back to the dance-floor with vigor but when she enters the room and makes eye-contact with Regina, Janis has been replaced by some girl with auburn hair and a jean jacket. Janis just stares. 

Regina is looking right in her eye but she’s dancing with the girl with the auburn hair. Janis can’t stand the sight of it, so she bolts. 

It’s mid-March and it’s still cold and Janis forgot her coat but she can’t even care. She doesn’t even feel the cold. She’s probably five steps from the front door when it slams behind her and she hears someone running up behind her.

“Janis!” It’s Regina so Janis steels herself and turns around. 

Regina is holding Janis’ jacket. She hands it to Janis. Regina herself didn’t bring a coat, she often doesn’t. Regina’s eyes are open and she’s shivering in the cold. Janis hates her soft gay heart. She sighs and steps forward and slings her jacket over Regina’s shoulders. Regina sort-of buries into it and smiles up at Janis. Janis stares at her and then realizes how close they are. She goes to take a step backward but Regina grabs her by the elbows and pulls her even closer. Regina isn’t smiling anymore, she looks a bit exasperated.

“Janis, what do you want?”

Janis just stares at her. 

“Because people aren’t mind-readers. And I might be awesome and better than most people, but I did not gain that particular power.” Regina looks so earnest. “So you have to tell me what you want.”

Janis stares into Regina’s blue eyes, shining in the darkness and she shakes her head at herself. 

She grabs Regina, sliding her left hand to Regina’s jaw and the right to the spot where Regina’s neck and head meet and pulls her towards her. She pulls Regina off-balance and Regina steadies herself by putting her hands on Janis’ hip bones. They’re inches apart and Janis growls out; “I want you”. She waits just long enough to see Regina start to smile before she presses their lips together. 

As soon as their lips touch, Regina pulls her in until they’re pressed flush against each other. Janis tries not to be overwhelmed, but Regina from a distance was intoxicating, and now… Janis isn’t sure if she’ll ever come down from this particular high. 

The kiss deepens and Regina moans and Janis pulls her even closer and then Regina growls and digs her fingers into Janis’ back and Janis grabs at her own jacket around Regina’s shoulders and backs the blonde into the telephone pole a few feet away and presses into her. 

Regina pulls back after a moment and looks Janis in the eyes. 

“I was wondering how long it was going to take for that to work.” She’s smirking and she’s got all the attitude she retained that Janis secretly loves but all the softness she’s gained that makes Janis melt. But her words shock Janis. Janis stares at her.

“I’ve been wanting you to do that for months.”

“But you just said… you have to go for what you want.”

“Janis, a little more than two years ago I was the girl who ruined your entire life. I could see in your eyes what you wanted, but you needed to realize it for yourself and then make the choice to trust me.” Regina seems… nervous. “And I realize that this could have been a heat-of-the-moment decision and while it will kill me to give you up now I’ve had a taste of what could be,” here she grins and pulls Janis closer to her, but then she stops and pulls back, “I need you to be sure that this is really what you want, because I know it might seem like my ‘schtick’ but I’m not planning on being casual with you Ja-“

Janis shuts her up by dragging her back into a kiss. She pulls Regina to her and slides her hands down to her ass and presses Regina against her. Regina wraps her arms around Janis’ neck; Janis’ jacket slips off of Regina’s shoulders but neither of them notices. Regina threads her fingers through Janis’ hair and slips her leg in-between Janis’. 

She pulls back just enough to whisper her demand into Janis’ ear. “Take me home, Janis. Take me home now.”


	4. Karen smarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a very popular request. 
> 
> Karen doesn’t know how nobody notices that Regina looks like she could eat Janis every time she walks into a party. And eat is a good way- not like decimate her social life- bc Regina is a Good ™ person now. How nobody notices them disappearing into closets/ art rooms/ locker room (that lion suit needs to be burned) is beyond her. Slowly though, people figure it out- whether by walking in or by opening their gd eye! 
> 
> How the gang figures out Regina/Janis are a thing. 
> 
> Sorry I'm not funny enough to write Karen to justice

Karen knows she’s kinda stupid. But newsflash; she isn’t dumb. 

Honestly, sometimes she thinks she’s the least dumb member of their group. Sure Cady knows all those fractorials or whatever and Gretchen can keep more information in her head then like… well, she can keep a lot of information in her head. But Karen honestly has no idea how nobody notices the way Regina looks at Janis. 

It’s senior year and they all hang out a lot now. And between the mall and movie nights and parties and lunch Karen can’t believe that no one has noticed that Regina looks like she could eat Janis every time she enters a room. And eat in the good way - not like decimate her social life - because (EXCITING!) Regina’s a Good PersonTM now. 

She really doesn’t understand it because Regina is so obviously horny for literally everything Janis does but no one seems to notice except poor Karen. 

Like, one time Janis slammed her lunch tray down at the table with the rest of them at lunch, swung her legs around and started immediately ranting about some jerk-ass in her art class (she’s taking one after school at the local community college). She’s truly fired up and Damian, Cady, and Gretchen are backing her up and calling this dude out for his shit with her. But as Janis gets more and more and more infuriated and riled up Regina gets more and more… flustered. Karen stares at her, confused at first, as to why Regina suddenly has color high in her cheeks and why her eyes are dilating or why she’s got the end of her pen in her mouth and is chewing at it slowly while making eyes at Janis. Then it clicks and Karen rolls her eyes. Of course. 

And the one time they drag the girl to the mall and Regina gets free reign to dress Janis up in whatever she wants and she puts the girl in these striped dress pants and a dark plum low-cut crop top and yellow suspenders and when Janis exits the dressing room shuffling in her combat boots Karen thinks it’s completely obvious by the way that Regina’s looking at Janis that she needs to drag Cady and Gretchen out to go get some pretzels and look at the pretty fountains. 

Regina whispers a thank-you in her ear later when they’re at dinner. Karen just smiles. 

But then they start actively hooking up and it’s not just pining and being turned on. 

Now it’s worse. 

At one party Gretchen comes up to her and seems worried. “Karen! I haven’t seen Regina in thirty minutes, do you know where she is?” Karen smiles brightly. She saw Regina go upstairs a while ago (wearing her tightest pair of white jeans and a crop top and staring directly at Janis over her shoulder as she strutted up the stairs) and Janis followed her hungrily not even a minute later. They haven’t been back down soon. She was standing right next to Gretchen when it happened…

“Upstairs silly.”

Gretchen moves to go up the stairs and Karen grabs her by the wrist. “No no no don’t follow her!”

“Why not? Is she ok?”

“Yeah, she just probably wants to be alone.” Karen winks. Or she tries to. 

“Ohhhhh. Gotcha,” Gretchen smiles, “who is it this time? Basketball hottie from three days ago?”

Karen stares at her blankly and walks away. She doesn’t understand her friends. 

When Janis and Regina come downstairs a while later, both completely mussed and unable to take their eyes off of each other for long. They leave together within the hour. Gretchen sees them and pales. She swings around and looks at Karen. Karen just shrugs and goes back to dancing with Damian. 

Damian knows because of course he does. Janis had told him the second it happened and she’d sworn him to secrecy. But he’s trying to push it along because he’s tired of Cady and Aaron and Kevin (who’s friends with them now) not getting it. 

“Regina is that paint in your hair? I thought you dropped art…” He says one day at lunch, picking at some pink paint in Regina’s hair. She slaps his hand away and glares at Janis. 

Aaron looks between them for like four minutes, agape until he whispers “No fucking way.” And then leaves. 

That night all of them are hanging out at Damian’s watching movies. Cady leans over and whispers to him. “What was with you at lunch today?”

Aaron stares at her. “You really don’t know?”

“No!”

Aaron looks over his shoulder where, in the loveseat in the corner Janis and Regina are tangled up and Janis is whispering into Regina’s ear. Regina’s hand is gripping the arm of the loveseat with such fervor that Aaron blushes and spins back around. 

Cady follows his glance and pales. She goes to stand up and Aaron pulls her down. 

“What the fuck are you doing, babe?”

“Well it looks like they’re probably arguing, do you see how frustrated Regina looks?” Cady’s innocent concern is cute but Aaron is flabbergasted. 

“She’s not that kind of frustrated, babe.”

When Cady gets it her mouth hits the floor and stays there for a while. 

Regina and Janis leave after the second movie and Cady tries really hard to not think about that. 

Kevin walks in on them furiously making out in the art studio. He’d gone in to ask Janis how the design for the mathlete t-shirts was going. He walks in the door and then right back out. 

He runs into Karen in the hall. 

“Did you know Janis was getting it on with the Queen Bee? Like damn, that girl got game.”

Karen just giggles. “Of course I did, silly math-jock.”

Kevin just gives her a fist bump and goes on his way. 

Karen skips off to find Gretchen and realizes how long it will take the rest of the school to figure this out if her own friends didn’t get it until like five months in. 

She waves at a very mussed Regina as she exits the art studio. 

“Hey, Regina! Hope you had fun with Janis.”

Janis peeks her head out the door and stares at Regina in disbelief.


	5. Second Chances and Sweet Romances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off of three prompts: Maybe... They're friends, but Janis gets jealous and Regina confronts her about it/makes fun of her cause she knows she has feelings for her? [in which I switched who was jealous], First Kiss, and Karen and Gretchen give Janis a makeover which results in Regina's Gay PanicTM. 
> 
> This is the story about how the gang schemes to get Regina to realize/admit she has feelings for Janis. It's kinda messy and pretty stream-of-conscious, but a long thought out story will be coming soon, so here is a messy appetizer to that main course ;)

Regina and Janis are friends now. It defies all the odds but they are. And it’s absolute fucking torture for Regina. And not in the way you might expect. It’s absolute torture because now she has to confront things she has been pushing to the side for years. 

Janis, though, is kind-of having the time of her life. 

It was around September that Janis figured out that Regina has feelings for her, and Janis has been soaking it in ever since. Sure she’d had to process and unpack it with Damian’s help but after that, she realized, until Regina figured out just what was making her act the way she was acting, that Janis was going to milk this experience for all it was worth. Maybe push Regina into action a little. 

Janis is over lying to herself and pretending to be something she’s not so that night in September when Damian asked her if maybe she wanted Regina to like her Janis had just stared into the distance for a while before looking at Damian and whispering “well I’m screwed.”

It was true, Janis had lots of feelings for Regina George, and she knew that Regina George had a lot of feelings for her, but she knew she couldn’t push Regina directly or the other girl would lash out or run away (she might have shed her outer layers and reverted back to being a pretty good person but she hadn’t completely changed) Janis knew Regina would have to come to terms with this on her own, she just wanted to speed the process up a bit. 

So she schemes. She gets Damian’s help, and then accidentally enlists Gretchen one day when Gretchen comes into the art room to ask Damian’s opinion on her outfit for something or other and finds them next to a chalkboard with the start of a seven-step plan. 

Gretchen squeals. She still really wants to make everyone around her happy, though she’s learning slowly how to not get walked on, and how to find self-worth without praise from Regina or Cady. But when Damian shushes a protesting Janis and tells Gretchen the plan she’s 100% in. 

“Awwww, I’ve been keeping people’s secrets for years, you think I don’t see how Regina looks at you with those big eyes and the expression of terror?” Gretchen says to Janis when she looks and see’s Janis’ look of utter shock. 

Damian cackles. 

•••

The first stage of their plan is dubbed “Make Regina notice Janis” and has three parts. The first is to just up Regina’s exposure to Janis and make sure Janis is flaunting what she’s got while Regina is paying attention. 

Janis changes her routine at school, making sure that she walks down the hallway going the opposite way from Regina at least twice a day. Regina doesn’t quite strut down the hall the way she used to. She’s not always flanked by Gretchen and Karen because now that there aren’t weird rules and weirder expectations the two girls are free to just walk to their own classes. And the effects from Regina’s tango with the bus have left her in flats instead of heels, and she tires easily. 

But the hallway still parts for her like it’s the Red Sea. Regina hasn’t ruined anyone’s life in probably 6 months and she’s been actively nicer to people, but old habits die hard, Janis guesses. 

But every day after Homeroom and every day after Lunch Regina walks down the main hall of campus with at least two people with her. It’s usually Gretchen and Karen but sometimes it’ll be Cady, or Damian, or Aaron or even Kevin. Somedays it’d been Janis, but now she makes sure to leave both lunch and homeroom really fast to get to her locker so she can be there when Regina starts her strut down the hall. 

It’s a warm fall day when it firsts really works. For the last two weeks Regina has stared at Janis for the few seconds they pass each other, and Janis has either grinned at Regina or said hi, and Reinga has always responded. But on this particular day, Janis starts walking down the hall as soon as she sees Regina. People respect and like her after her stunt in the gym last year and there isn’t a ton of traffic because most people are coming straight from the lunch hall, so she has a pretty clear shot as she shakes off the small lingering nerves and flips her hair over her shoulder and stalks down the hallway towards Regina (flanked by Gretchen and Damian today). 

When Regina comes into view, the student body has parted so that it’s only the two of them in the hall, there’s no way Janis couldn’t see Regina or Regina couldn’t see Janis, but as they get closer Janis sets her focus to the space above Regina’s head. Regina, for her part, does exactly what Janis expected; she stares at Janis as she gets closer, and her eyebrows contract when she realizes that Janis isn’t going to look at her. 

At the last second, Janis can manage before she’ll have completely passed Regina, she sends her most dangerous and seductive smirk over to Regina and winks, before continuing on. 

It takes everything she has to not turn around and watch the reaction, but Gretchen and Damian come over after school and gush for like twenty minutes about how Regina had stopped dead in her tracks so fast Gretchen had barely missed bowling her over by Damian pulling her out of the way. Regina had then stared, eyes wide, at Janis’ retreating form for a good ten seconds before she’d snapped back to the present reality, blushed, and turned, wide-eyed, to Damian and Gretchen who had both pretended nothing had happened. 

It makes Janis grin ferociously to imagine. 

•••

Regina's on the brink, literally anything seems to have her a complete mess. When Janis laughs, Regina blushes. When Janis grins at her, Regina pales. When Janis walks away, Regina watches. When Janis speaks to her, sometimes Regina stutters or blinks rapidly before she can speak. She finds Janis working in the library, pen in her mouth and she swoons. She finds Janis goofing off with Damian and the mathletes in the parking lot and giggles. She finds Janis playing with some puppies one of the teachers brought in to de-stress the kids and Regina almost faints at how fucking cute/hot it is. 

Damian loves the material he has to work with, but he sees that one area has been a little underdeveloped. So he comes up with this idea to play into Janis’ passion. So he plays the long game. He knows that Janis has an art-show right before Halloween and he plans to use that. She’s constantly rushing home after school and holing herself up in her art studio/garage. 

He walks up to Regina one day at the beginning of October and tells her he wants to go to the mall and look at shoes. Regina immediately agrees. So after school, they get in Regina’s car and are on their way to the mall when Damian cusses loudly and tells Regina that he left his wallet at Janis’ the night before (which was true, he’d shoved it in the seat of the couch in the garage). She rolls her eyes and turns the car around, driving to Janis’. 

When they get there Regina makes to stay in the car, but Damian insists that once he goes in he doesn’t know how long Janis will keep him and she might as well come in with him. Damian almost cackles at how easily and quickly Regina agrees to his flimsy excuse, but he holds it together. 

They walk into exactly what Damian had hoped. Janis has soft music with a strong beat playing through her garage and she’s in her painting clothes, shorts, socks, a tank top and flannel (all covered in paint) with her hair tied up at the base of her neck. She’s got paint on her forearms where she’s rolled up her flannel, and she’s got paint streaked on her legs and one green streak on her forehead and one red one on her neck. She’s perspiring a little, but her eyes are focused and intense. She’s stretching when they walk in and Damian glances at Regina out of the corner of her eye and sees the girl’s eyes widen, and her mouth almost drops open. He decides to let it go for a while, and as soon as the tension seems to lean towards growing stale he opens his mouth to speak. 

He takes a while fake looking for his wallet and Janis pulls over a stool for Regina to sit as Damian first checks most of the garage and then ventures inside. Janis turns down the music but continues to paint as Regina sits and watches. Janis has to bite her lip to stop her grinning or laughing at the expression deep in Regina’s eyes. 

Damian comes back in and guesses he’s pushed far enough, “finds” his wallet and drags Regina, who stops to mumble a soft “the painting is really awesome, Janis” before she lets herself get dragged out. 

Damian lets Regina process through the drive to the mall, because the girl looks like she really needs it. 

•••

Two weeks later, Janis invites everyone to her art show and Gretchen enlists Karen to work her part of the plan. They approach Janis after school the Thursday before her show (on Saturday) and ask if they can help her get ready before her big moment. Janis looks skeptical, but she’s truly friends with these girls now, so she nods. 

“On one condition… you don’t make me wear pink.”

“Of course silly, it’s not Wednesday.” 

They stay true to their word, and honestly, they don’t even really alter Janis’ look that much. It’s a pretty formal event, and Janis has already picked out her outfit. They veto the shirt she’d picked, and replace it with a semi-sheer button down from Gretchen’s closet. It goes well with Janis’ silver blazer and silver shoes with her customary black skirt and decorative tights. 

Gretchen straighten’s Janis’ hair and pulls it back to show-off the shaved side (freshly buzzed) while Karen focuses on Janis’ makeup. She tones down the eyeliner but gives the girl a sparkly silver smoky-eye and contours her bone structure from naturally-sharp to holy-fuck. She and Gretchen confer and decide on a nude lipstick and they help Janis pick out jewelry. It’s Karen’s idea for her to wear the bowtie, Janis’ idea to run downstairs and splatter it with paint, and Gretchen’s idea to load as many rings onto Janis’ hands as possible (she’s been friends with Regina long enough to know that girl will notice and appreciate the attention being brought to Janis’ long fingers and strong hands). 

Regina shows up with Damian, Cady, and Aaron to the art show and she’s flabbergasted. Janis has a section of the gallery that’s all her own and while the gang mostly walks around the whole thing (one of the artists paints animal studies and Cady drags Aaron over there for a good portion of the night) Regina can’t really pull herself from the front right corner of the room where paintings with deep colors and broad strokes and abstract shapes and emotions that spill off the canvas and directly into Regina’s heart live. 

Janis had been in the back with another artist and the gallery owner when Regina and the gang showed up and when she exits, Gretchen in her blue dress and Karen in her bubblegum pink one and Damian in his purple suit jacket are wandering around the gallery while Aaron in a navy suit stands with Cady in her dark purple pantsuit looking at a painting of a lion, Kevin and the mathlete dudes goofing off by the door with Shane fucking Ohman and she grins, her life full of amazing people. Then she sees Regina in a white dress with silver shoes. Regina’s facing away from her, staring at Janis’ favorite piece she has in this exhibit. It’s a painting of a figure on the other side of a window, walking towards the window in the pouring rain. It’s all blues and greens and browns and purples and the figure is just open space on the canvas. 

As Janis rounds the corner, staring much more at Regina then at her painting, she sees the expression on Regina’s face and something constricts in her chest. She feels like she can’t breathe. When Regina turns towards her and that look is then directed 100% at Janis she stops in her tracks. Regina is looking at her with pure awe and a little bit of something that scares Janis a little. But Janis likes to think of herself as someone who walks towards the things that scare her, not away, so she walks towards Regina. 

Regina opens her mouth as if to speak, but she can’t and she just shakes her head. Janis feels herself blushing and she ducks her head. 

“I can… uh… I can walk you through it if you’d like?”

It’s a credit to their friends that all of them let them have this moment and wait until Regina looks like she might actually faint before they bombard Janis with praise and hugs. 

Regina looks wildly at Damian and then at Gretchen and after they take Janis out to ice cream, Gretchen takes Regina home with her and listens as a wide-eyed and flabbergasted Regina admits that she likes Janis. 

Gretchen texts Damian once Regina’s passed out from exhaustion. 

“On to stage two”

•••

Damian has to credit most of stage 2 to Gretchen knowing Regina really well. She calls Damian after the art show and tells Damian that now that Regina has admitted that she likes Janis she’s going to throw up a lot of walls. 

“She doesn’t think Janis is gonna like her, which is a valid thought, so she’s going to just retreat?” Damian asks. 

“Not in the way you might think. It’s like… she’s going to try to pretend that Janis doesn’t really matter to her, but she’s also going to kind-of rip herself apart because obviously, Janis does.”

Damian nods. 

Stage 2 of the plan is called “The Jealousy Stage” and they don’t even have to do all of the work. 

A week after the art exhibit, Regina, who’s back to full strut, is stalking down the halls, looking to walk past Janis’ locker on her way to English class, when she spots a girl in the grade below them leaning against Janis’ locker. 

The girl is a grade B bitch. (Regina gives her a grade B because she’s no Junior-Year-Regina). She’s tall and she’s got freckles and bright green eyes and long brown hair and tan skin and she’s gorgeous, Regina can admit that. And she’s leaning towards Janis and grinning and Janis is fucking blushing. 

Regina isn’t one of those people who could blend in and figure out what they’re saying, but she tries her best, slowing her pace and pretending to read something on her phone as she passes. She overhears. 

“Your art gallery was so gorgeous, and I just had to meet the artist.”

“Thanks”

“I was wondering if you’d like”

Some dude next to Regina shouts and then almost pees himself when Regina spins on him, murder in her eyes. She softens quickly and rolls her eyes at the sophomore dude who’s on the wrestling team. He scampers off. 

“Sure!”

Regina looks at Janis and Janis is blushing deeply and Regina sees red. She’s about two-thirds of the way into a brutal plan to ruin the life of that bitch - Morgan maybe? When Janis notices her standing there. 

Morgan or whatever her name is long gone. 

“You ok, there Regina?”

Regina stands up straighter. “Fine, was she bothering you?”

Janis looks at her curiously, then smirks. “Nope. See you in History later.” And then she’s gone. Regina is fuming. 

She stops the closest junior, this girl who Regina has seen around but honestly cannot remember the name of, she’s on the girl’s soccer team and she shows up to a lot of the parties Aaron throws. 

“You’re going to find out what Morgan Michaels wants with Janis Sarkisian by the end of the day,” Regina says with no argument. The girl - Caitlyn - looks at Regina real hard. 

“Morgan went to Janis’ art-thingy and was super impressed or whatever and now she wants Janis to paint a picture of her…”

Regina stares at her, shocked. 

“I was literally standing right next to them when it happened.”

It’s then that Regina remembers that the doctor’s had said it might take a while for her hearing to get better after the bus. It’d been so long that she’d kind of forgotten what that meant for her ability to hear conversations from a distance away, never having needed that power before, relying on Gretchen. 

“Why do you want to know?”

Regina just stares at her and then walks away. (Two months later when a rumor starts spreading through the junior class that Caitlyn is a slut, Regina hunts down the stupid dude who got rejected by her and started the rumor and no one knows what she did or said to him but they do know that he left that day early, crying, and the rumor was squashed by the end of the day.)

•••

Two weeks later when Regina walks into the studio and sees Janis working on a painting of fucking Morgan Michaels, she almost sets the room ablaze just with the power of her eyes. It takes Gretchen’s pleading, Cady’s eye-rolls, Karen’s puppy-dog eyes and Damian’s no-nonsense attitude to get her to tell them what’s wrong. 

It’s Gretchen who calms her. “If Janis and Morgan were like… a thing… don’t you think Janis wouldn’t spend every weekend with us and she’d maybe like… even talk to Morgan during the day?” 

Regina has to admit that that sounds legit. 

“It’s like the basic laws of attraction, Regina, duh.”

They’re at lunch the next day when Cady bites the bullet. “So you and Morgan…”

Janis almost chokes on her food. “Ha! No, that girl may be ridiculously hot and totally into me, but I can’t stand being alone with her for longer than like, twenty minutes.”

They’re all shocked when that doesn’t actually make Regina feel better. 

“Yeah, like I’m sure Janis wouldn’t say the exact same about me, or worse.”

Karen pipes up quietly from the corner. “If we’re all just going to pretend the evening at the art gallery doesn’t exist, then why don’t you like… try to hang out with her for longer than twenty minutes and prove her wrong.”

They haven’t seen Regina this determined in a while. 

•••

They end up going to a drive-in. A fucking drive-in. Regina won’t admit it but she’s kind of floored by the idea and desperately wishes it was a date. She wishes it, even more, when they’re sitting in the bed of Janis’ dad’s truck on the small couch from her garage that Regina and Janis and Damian had put in the bed early that night. She’s sitting there, far too close to Janis, who is chuckling at the Hitchcock thriller they’re playing that night, and Regina feels overwhelmed by the emotions. 

The movie ends and they strap the couch back down and get back in the truck and Regina realizes that sitting in relative silence and watching a movie probably doesn’t count as solid alone time, so she hurriedly suggests they go get milkshakes. Janis grins. 

They end up spending much more than twenty minutes together, and when Janis drops Regina off after a night of laughter and teasing and lingering looks, she desperately wants to kiss her, but she doesn’t. Because while everyone else might know that Regina George is head-over-heels for Janis, all Janis can see is that Regina is attracted to her, and she refuses to get her heart broken by Regina George again, so she’s putting the ball firmly in Regina’s court and she leaves. 

Regina could scream with frustration. 

•••

Aaron throws a party the next weekend and Damian and Gretchen get to work. They coordinate schedules to make sure that Janis gets to the party before Regina, knowing that if they get Janis on the dance floor when Regina enters, that Regina might just short-circuit enough. They’re hoping they’re going to get to stage 3 tonight; actualization. Whereas Stage 1 was mostly Damian’s doing and Stage 2 Gretchen’s, Stage 3, while set in motion by their plotting, is entirely up to the two girls. 

Regina gets to the party, opens the door, walks through, grabs a drink, talks with Kevin and the mathletes for a little, says hi to Shane, and then walks towards the room with the stereo. She walks through the doorway and she stops. 

In the middle of the dance floor, grooving like she doesn’t care who sees, is Janis. She’s dancing brightly with not a care in the world, a huge grin on her face, wacky dance moves with just the right amount of rhythm. Regina has a flash of imagining pulling Janis close to her and moving to the music, and then she’s back in the moment, watching a care-free Janis dance with Karen and Damian, and she leans against the door-frame and smiles. 

“When are you going to stop kidding yourself?” It’s Aaron, standing with a red solo cup, leaning against the other side of the doorframe. 

Regina doesn’t even try to deny it, just looks at Janis and back at Aaron. His face softens a bit at the expression on her face. 

“I know you, Regina, don’t turn this into some sort of game or scheme. You talk a big talk about not caring what people think, and going for what you want but…”

Regina’s face is pained. “Janis isn’t people… she’s Janis. And I don’t deserve her.”

“Six months ago, I would have agreed with you. But tonight?” Aaron allows his thought to trail off, rests his hand on Regina’s shoulder for a second, and then leaves. 

When Regina turns back towards the dancing mob, Janis makes eye contact with her and waves, carefree and happy and Regina rolls her eyes fondly and smirks. Janis keeps staring at her, cocks her head to one side a little and grins. It makes Regina’s heart flutter. 

She maintains eye-contact with Janis as she stalks across the crowded room, gets up in her personal space (drowns out Gretchen and Damian squealing in the background) and grabs her by her jacket and pulls Janis to her. 

“I would really like to kiss you right now.” She says, searching Janis’ eyes. 

Janis grins “Fucking finally” and she lets Regina pull her in. Damian gives himself a round of applause. Gretchen starts tearing up and Karen rushes over to hug her, scared something is wrong. Cady grins and Aaron smiles and Shane and the mathletes whoop from the corner and while Regina rolls her eyes and Janis smirks, they both think... they couldn't have gotten luckier. And then Janis flips them all off and drags Regina outside so they can continue, uninterrupted. 

•••

They’re the talk of the school for the next two weeks; “Were you at Aaron’s when Regina expressed her undying love for Janis?” “Dude, watching Regina and Janis make out was like… totally bonkers.” “I really hope they’re happy, but don’t you think that’s a little weird of a combo? Like a year ago didn’t they hate each other?” “I heard Janis Sarkisian put Regina George under a love-spell and now… they’re getting married in Iowa” 

Some of the comments are more realistic than others. When Regina George struts down the hall, holding tightly to the hand of her girlfriend, Janis Sarkisian, and kisses her on the cheek when she drops her off at homeroom, she literally could not care less about what anyone has to say; all she can feel, is that she’s finally actually getting her second chance, and she’s not about to mess it up.


	6. 5 times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a lot to work through, and this is the (abridged) version of how they do. 
> 
> Prompts:   
>  \- Prompt #6: FIVE TIMES THEY ALMOST KISSED (AND ONE TIME THEY DID  
>  \- Prompt #7: Regina comes out to Karen and Gretchen and they’re like, yeah we totally knew you didn’t know that we’re dating?
> 
> “I’ve apologized to you so many times, and you’ve never even said you were sorry for what you did.”  
> “Well, maybe I don’t regret it.” Spits Janis and Regina recoils.

It’s three weeks before Regina George’s 13th birthday party. They’re at the local park. It’s just a little too late for the two of them to be out alone, the sun just having set, but Regina lives five minutes away and Janis is just right down the street. 

They’re giggling and running around. Between Regina’s new friends Karen and Gretchen and Regina’s growing popularity, it’s been a while since Regina and Janis have hung out just the two of them. 

“Gretchen is dating Michael now.”

Janis doesn’t respond to that immediately. She doesn’t really care. Michael has red hair and lots of freckles but he’s older than them and he’s on the JV football team. 

They collapse onto the tire swing, knees bumping in the center. 

“Can you imagine dating Michael or one of his friends? I can’t.” Janis chuckles, brushing her long dark hair back. 

Regina looks at her. She looks at her real hard. Over the last few months, Regina has started to realize what it takes to keep people’s attention. She’s started to realize that Karen and Gretchen are easily manipulated, that the girls at the school look up to her because of her blonde hair and expensive clothes. It’s already starting to become addicting. 

But Janis grounds her. Janis keeps her on this plane of existence. Janis has never fawned over her like the rest of the girls. And when Janis looks at her in awe, it feels different than when Gretchen or one of Michael’s friends, or anyone else does. 

Before either of them know what’s happening their foreheads are pressed together and their eyes are fluttering shut. 

Janis’ phone goes off, it’s a call from her mom wondering where she is. She answers the phone and Regina stares at the ground in shock. Janis doesn’t say anything, Regina just runs off. 

Regina goes home and starts to tell her Dad what happened. He cuts her off when he senses where she’s going. “Honey, stop right there. Janis did a bad thing at the park, and I don’t want to hear about anything like it again.” He’s stern and terrifying and over the last few years, he’s become less of her Dad and more of a stranger to her. 

Two days later Regina corners Janis at school and attacks. Janis hasn’t had any time to process what happened or what she wanted to happen or who she is. 

Regina tries to never look back. 

She fails  
•••

Regina George corners her at a party at Gretchen’s in the middle of July, spinal-halo removed just a week ago, with honest eyes and apologizes. Janis shuffles her feet together and stares at her hands. 

“It’s ok, I don’t expect you to forgive me. I don’t know where I lost myself so hard along the way, but I think that bus sort of restarted my trajectory.”

Janis kind-of groans and tenses as she looks at Regina. “It’s not that I don’t want to let go of all this shit and move on. It’s not even that I don’t want to forgive you…”

Regina’s eyes are softer than Janis has seen them since they were kids. “But you’re not there yet. I get that.” Regina seems tense too, now. “It’s already more than I deserve.”

And before Janis can say anything else, Regina is gone. 

Janis gets tanked, which always leads to bad decisions. 

She’s on the dance floor and then suddenly there’s blonde hair in her face, and then god knows how much time passes, but suddenly someone’s spilled beer all down her shirt and she’s in the bathroom. 

The quiet and bright-light of the bathroom sobers her up a little bit, just enough to notice that Regina George is in there with her and while maybe that should make her nervous, it doesn’t really. 

Regina wets a towel and starts dabbing at Janis’ shirt. The stain is on Janis’ stomach and Regina grabs the hem and pulls it away from Janis, trying not to touch the dark-haired girl. 

Janis doesn’t have the best decision-making skills at the moment nor the best focus or filter, so she spends the time Regina is cleaning her up, staring at Regina. Her eyes kind-of lose focus as Regina worries her bottom lip and devotes most of her attention to Janis’ shirt. 

As time passes, and the silence stretches, and the stain starts fading, and the cold water on the towel warms, Regina starts handling the intensity of Janis’ stare less and less well. Her glance keeps darting up more and more often, and for longer and longer and then she drops Janis’ shirt and murmurs “there” into the silence. 

Janis takes one step forward and almost falls to the ground. 

She grabs Regina by the collar of her leather jacket to stabilize herself and pulls Regina flush against her and both go careening into the wall. They’re very close. Too close. Regina is staring at Janis’ lips and Janis is far past that. Janis’ eyes are lidded and start blinking closed and she’s just starting to lean forward when Regina reels back. 

“Janis you’re drunk.”

Janis doesn’t respond. 

“And more to the point,” Regina says softly, sadly, “you hate me remember.”

She goes to leave and Janis finds her sobriety just enough to grab her by the wrist. 

“I don’t hate you.” She says and though she’s drunk, her brow is furrowed and her tone is serious.

“You should.”

She lets Regina go and Regina is gone. 

It’s not till the next morning that Janis realizes that Regina only stopped for her own benefit. It throws her into a tailspin. 

•••  
“What do you think it means?”

“Honey, I don’t think I need to spell it out for you.”

Janis and Damian are in Damian’s backyard, laying in the grass and looking up at the clouds. It’s two days after the party and Janis is still confused. 

“What do you want it to mean?”

Janis groans and rolls over. “That’s the part I’m afraid of.”

 

Meanwhile, Regina comes out to Gretchen, Cady, and Karen one night right before classes start. They just kind of stare at her. Cady smiles at her big and soft. Karen grins and rolls her eyes “duhhhh Regina, we knew that.” Regina’s jaw drops. “And we’ve been meaning to tell you…” Gretchen says as she slowly grabs Karen’s hand to hold. Karen looks at her and grins wide. Regina feels like she’s being punked, but she’s honestly really happy for Karen and Gretchen and she smiles big and asks her mom to buy them some champagne. 

Mrs. George asks why and Regina shyly tells her. Stacy George grins really wide, tears up, and buys the most expensive champagne she can find. Regina hasn’t been more happy about her parent’s divorce two years ago ever. 

Her mom comes into her room later that night, when the girls have gone home, and Regina tries very hard to quell the immediate reaction she has that tells her to kick her mom out and lets Stacy sit on her bed, pause her movie, and tell her how much she loves her. 

For the first time in a few years, Regina lets herself sob it all out. 

She comes to school and the change is immediately palpable. People kind-of ignore Regina, but they kind of don’t. She still gets super dressed up, she still struts down the halls, but now she keeps to herself mostly. 

 

It’s a Tuesday in September when Kelly-Ann Tins smacks Janis’ tray out of her hand and spits ‘dyke’ at her. It takes approximately fifteen seconds for Regina to round on her. 

They get in quite the screaming match in the cafeteria. Or, more accurately, Kelly-Ann screams a lot right up in Regina’s face. Regina, calm voice laced with venom stands up for Janis and ends up coming out to the entire cafeteria. 

Later that day she’s walking down the hall on the way to history, trying to keep to herself. Not much has happened since lunch, but people sure are whispering. Regina is honest when she says it bothers her, but she doesn’t regret it. She’s stalking down the hall when suddenly a door opens to her left and Janis Sarkisian is in front of her. 

“Regina.”

Regina involuntarily starts tearing up and she goes to walk past her when Janis grabs her wrist. “Regina, wait,” she says as she pulls her into the art studio and shuts the door, trying to avoid a scene.

Regina stands, arms crossed with one hip popped, and tries very hard not to cry. 

Janis shuffles awkwardly, and leans against the door; plays with the sleeves of her jacket. 

“Did you need something?” Regina says, shortly. Her walls are up and Janis sighs and looks at her. Regina deflates. 

“I wanted- I wanted to say thank you for today. You… you didn’t have to do that.”

Regina is still a little tense, but definitely more vulnerable as she moves her head and swings her hair over her shoulder. “Yes I did, Janis.” She takes a step towards her. “Is that how I wanted today to go, no… but there’s only one way I can make up for the things I’ve done, and that’s with the things I do now.”

Janis looks at her. “That’s very wise.” She grins a little. “Who are you and what have you done with Regina George?” 

Regina rolls her eyes good-naturedly and steps from foot to foot. It brings her closer to Janis and she smiles weakly. Then it fades. She takes a purposeful step forward until they’re very close. “I’m sorry for everything I put you through, and I’m sorry for giving other people the ammunition and avenue to attack you too.”

Janis sighs and pushes herself off the wall. “I know you are.” 

She looks Regina in the eye. It’s dark and warm and empty in the art studio and in that one moment it’s almost like nothing else exists. Regina’s eyes flick down to Janis’ lips and before she knows what she’s doing she’s leaning in. 

She’s so close to Janis, that when the dark-haired girl opens her mouth to speak, Regina can feel the ghost of it on her own. “What are we doing?”

Regina reels back. She looks Janis right in the eye, says nothing, and leaves. 

Janis’ mind is blank except for one though; there’s no way it means what she thinks it means… right?

•••

Regina and Janis don’t hang out for a while. Sure they see each other with the group but they try to keep their distance. As Halloween approaches, though, they start seeing each other more and more. They’re planning for the party that Karen is hosting. Karen’s going as a tiger and Gretchen as a bear and they try to get Regina to come as a lion and she laughs full-bellied and tells them to ask Cady. So the three of them go as a lion a tiger and a bear. Aaron wears a t-shirt that says “oh my” and everyone makes fun of him for it but he just grins. The mathletes come as the Powerpuff girls which everyone dies over. Regina comes to the party dressed as a ‘fallen angel’ she’s wearing all white and she’s got a pair of wings from a costume shop. She’s dented the one wing and dip-dyed the ends a murky grey/black. She’s got on really dark heavy eye-makeup and she’s torn up a pair of her white jeans and a white shirt for the look. 

Damian wants him and Janis to go as Sully and Boo from Monsters Inc. and Janis just stares at him when he asks and then walks away. He chases her down and they compromise on Elton John and Janis Joplin (which they both decide isn’t really a compromise at all). Damian is living for his white suit, white hat, funky glasses, weird bow-tie and the cane he found at the costume shop. Janis wears about a million bracelets, her customary black shorts, and patterned fishnets, but trades out her usual tops for a tie-dye shirt and decorates a custom jean vest just for the outfit. She buys a pair of huge wire-rim glasses from the thrift store and she lets Damian crimp her hair. They look perfect. 

They roll into the party. Janis makes eye contact with Regina for the first time and promptly heads for the bar. This time, Damian keeps a little better eye on her and keeps her from going too overboard with the drinking. Unfortunately for Regina, no one is watching her alcohol intake and she’s two and a half sheets to the wind before Aaron comes over, takes her glass and looks at her pointedly. 

She’s not quite to stumbling around drunk but she isn’t super steady on her feet as she wanders outside. It’s her fucking luck that the only other person out there is Janis fucking Sarkisian, looking gorgeous and scuffing her feet as she looks into the fountain that the Smith’s have in their backyard. 

Regina manages to get to the fountain, and she takes a seat. Janis looks at her, a little warily, and then sits down next to her. 

“Hi,” Regina says, and maybe her smile is leaning towards manic cause Janis’ eyes widen and she splutters out a laugh. 

“You drunk, Regina?”

Regina grins and Janis laughs harder. 

“Where’s your date?”

“Damian? Oh god only knows.”

“No, not Damian.” Regina looks like what she means is obvious, but Janis is honestly confused. 

“That- that girl with the pigtails and the plaid, that was hitting on you inside?”

Janis blushes. “Beth? Ha. No, Beth and I are friends and she’s- she’s not.”

“Oh she’s interested,” Regina says and Janis turns towards her sharply at the bite in Regina’s tone. Regina tries to smile. It doesn’t quite work. “Who wouldn’t be, though.”

Janis sighs and pulls one leg up so she can turn towards Regina. Regina just turns her head. 

“What are you doing, Regina?”

“What do you mean?”

Janis runs a hand through her hair. “What do you want?”

“I want a lot of things,” Regina says, and she turns her whole body towards Janis. “I want people to stop staring at me with hatred in their eyes. I want to fix every dumb mistake I made. I want to have all the power I used to have without having to ignore the way I would break people’s lives. I want all of the good of all of that and none of the bad. I took the good and the bad before and now I’m taking none of it. But I’ve always wanted what I can’t have.” She looks at Janis. “And I always used to just… take what I wanted even if I shouldn’t have or couldn’t.” She leans in again. She’s more intense than Janis has seen her in months. “But I’m trying not to just take things anymore. Doesn’t mean I don’t want them. But now, I ask for what I want. I work for what I want, but I ask for it. And, right now, I want you.” She’s so close to Janis. Almost as close as they were in the art studio. But, with Regina George there, almost-sort-of-kind-of baring her heart, Janis pulls back. 

Regina turns away from her. 

“Regina.”

“No, it’s ok Janis. A girl gets rejected enough times, you think she’d learn to keep away.” She turns to look at Janis, her eyes wet and red-rimmed. “But there’s always been something about you.”

She leaves. 

They’re civil for the next few months, but they don’t interact alone. Janis, who knows she should just sit down and figure out what she wants from Regina, can’t bring herself to do so. 

So they sit at an impasse and try to coexist like that for months. 

•••  
In February, they all go ice-skating. And then they go for hot chocolate. And then they go see a movie. And then they all go back to Aaron’s house to watch movies. 

Regina offers to drive Cady, Janis and Damian home. Cady says she wants to stay the night, Regina’s on edge. Damian ends up leaving with one of the mathletes and honestly, everyone is completely shocked by that, Regina’s terrified. 

But Regina drives Janis home in tense silence and when they get to Janis’ house, Regina gets out. There’s some part of her that’s compelled to walk Janis to her front door. Perhaps it’s the glutton for punishment in her, perhaps it’s because it’s 1 am and completely dark, perhaps it’s because she doesn’t want to leave Janis’ company. Whatever the reason, they stand awkwardly on Janis’ front porch for a moment before they both go to speak at the same time. 

“Well, goodnight.” Regina says at the same time that Janis blurts out “are we ever gonna talk about this.”

Regina stares at Janis. “Talk about what?”

Janis sighs. “I’m tired of this Regina. I’m tired of this terrible tension between us whenever we’re hanging with the group. I thought we were working past all of that. I thought we were friends.”

Regina scoffs. “We weren’t really friends, Jan.”

Janis reels, “What!?”

Regina fires back, “Well, it’s not like we were on even footing. You kept stringing me along, and I just fell at your feet like a lost puppy dog.”

Janis snorts, “sorry that I didn’t immediately fall into your lap again Regina but need I remind you that you did a lot of shit to me over the years.”

Regina’s angry now. “Yes. Yes, I did." She looks like she might cry. "I’ve apologized to you so many times, and you’ve never even said you were sorry for what you did."

“Well, maybe I don’t regret it.” Spits Janis. Regina recoils. 

There's a long pause.

“Well, there’s where we differ I guess.” She’s quieter now, but no less angry. “You forgave me a long time ago Janis. I could tell, we could all tell. Damian even fucking congratulated me on it. But now you’re scared. And you’re going to stand here and blame me for whatever weird tension we have? Yes. I like you. Yes, I pursued you and you said no. But I have been working back up to be your friends for months, and I thought we were at the point where you could trust me to not throw that away over something so petty.”

Janis sets her jaw before she responds. “That’s not why I’ve been so distant.”

They’re close now. Neither is sure how they always end up like this. 

“You’re right,” Janis continues, “I forgave you a while ago. You’ve proven yourself. It’s just… I’ve been scared. But...”

Janis looks into Regina’s eyes but before Regina can lean in, can do what she’s done too many times now she looks into Janis’ eyes too. She stops herself in her forward trajectory. 

“Is this what you want, Janis?”

“Why do you think it’s not?”

“Why do you think it is?”

And it’s in that moment that Janis realizes she hasn’t even asked herself what she wants. Not in a long time. Not really. 

Her answer must read loud and clear on her face because Regina huffs out a breath. She turns to go.

“Let me know when you figure it out.” She calls over her shoulder, and then she’s gone.

•••

Janis asks herself the question. She asks herself again and again and again. She asks herself what it is about Regina George that has her constantly crawling back for more. She asks herself what it is about Regina George that causes her to lose all her common sense. She asks herself what it is about Regina George that encompasses her mind so completely. 

And meanwhile, the two of them start repairing their friendship… again. They hang out with the group and the work to avoid the awkward tension. They hang out with just the girls and stay up trading secrets and watching bad movies. They even start hanging out, just the two of them, and they see movies and go bowling, and Regina comes to Janis’ art shows and Janis comes over for dinner with Mrs. George. 

And then Janis starts to think about every time they’ve almost kissed. She thinks about the feelings she’s felt right before it happened. Anticipation, definitely. Nervousness, a bit. Fear; yes. It takes a lot of introspection, however, for her to realize that the fear isn’t directed at Regina. It’s not Regina she’s afraid of, not in that way. It’s what it means if she lets herself fall down that path. Regina George ruined her life, and Regina George has proven that she’s not going to do that to Janis again. If they stay where they are it could be a completely harmless experience. If they go down that path. She knows now that Regina wouldn’t ever hurt her on purpose again. And she even knows that Regina’s slowly gotten to the point that she doesn’t ruin people’s lives on accident either (her old habits are slowly fading and being replaced by new ones). The problem is if they go down this path and Regina George ruins her life again, in the way that there’s always a chance that the person you are falling in love with could ruin your life, she doesn’t know if she’ll make it out. 

The difference; she figures out, near the end of March on the first warm day in a long while, is that this time she would have to hand her heart over to Regina willingly. She’s sitting on her porch steps waiting to be picked up by the girl to go to a party. And when Regina steps out of her car and flips her hair over one shoulder as she closes the door and then turns towards the house, Janis finally realizes, she’s ready to take that shot. 

But when Regina waves at her, she loses her nerve. Instead, she climbs into the passenger seat of Regina’s white Jeep and buckles up and spends the ride in silence. 

They get to the party and Regina parks, but she doesn’t turn off the car. Instead, she turns towards Janis. 

“What’s up with you tonight?”

“What!?”

“You’re awfully quiet… and jumpy.” Regina’s eyes narrow in that way that used to be threatening but is just kind of cute/concerned now. 

“Nothing.”

Regina taps the wheel with her fingers. 

“Janis, I know we’re kind of past the whole… adventure of us over the last few months. But I guess I realized there’s something I haven’t said to you yet. And, you know, dying makes you realize that sometimes you just have to say it.”

Janis just stares. 

“I realized that I asked you what you want, but I never told you what I want, and maybe that wasn’t fair.” Regina looks nervous, pulls at the sleeves of her jacket. “And maybe telling you this isn’t 100% fair but I can’t keep it in any longer either.” Regina looks at her. “I want all of you. I want the good and the bad. I want the Janis who snorts and the Janis who laughs and the Janis who paints and the Janis who calls me on my bullshit and the Janis who rolls her eyes at my antics. But more than any of that, I want the Janis who wants me, and I don’t know if that Janis exists. I don’t know if I deserve for that Janis to exist. But that’s what I want.”

Janis feels like her world is upside down. Regina is pretty. Regina is always beautiful. But at that moment, more than anything else, Regina is real. And a real Regina, an authentic Regina, is what Janis wants.

So she kisses her. She grabs her by the collar of her jacket and kisses her across the center console of Regina’s white jeep outside of a party at Kevin Gs house. She kisses her and tries to pour all of those words she can’t quite form into the press of lips and the tug of teeth and the breath of it all.

Regina still pulls back and looks at her, question and concern on every feature. 

So Janis exhales. “It took me a while to admit it to myself. But I want you too, Regina. This you. The real you. I guess I didn’t know if that you existed either.”

Regina smiles, just a little bit of danger in her eyes. “Have I convinced you yet?”

Janis smirks back. “I think so, but I wouldn’t hate a bit more reminding.” And she pulls her back in. 

They don’t make it to the party.


End file.
